Will iTunes Match identify you as a dirty pirate to the RIAA? Will your …

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This fall Apple will offer iTunes users a paid add-on to its iCloud music syncing called iTunes Match. The service will let you mirror your iTunes library on iCloud, making it possible to access any track on any device you have registered with your Apple ID for a yearly $24.99 subscription fee.

The service has some limitations and perhaps one interesting "loophole," and questions exist concerning what exactly happens when you stop paying $25 every year. We decided to dig in and find out exactly what users can expect when the service rolls out in a few months.

iTunes Match will let you mirror up to 25,000 tracks in your iCloud, and those songs can be pulled down to any iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, as well as synced with Macs or PCs running iTunes. This includes tracks ripped from CDs or downloaded from the Internet, even those you may have obtained in a less-than-legal manner.

As rumored, Apple's efforts to strike licensing deals with record labels gives its music-in-the-cloud service one major feature over recently announced competing services from Amazon and Google. That feature is the namesake of iTunes Match—using the song match technology acquired from Lala, it scans your iTunes library to find matches among the 18 million tracks in the iTunes Store.

If there is a match found in the iTunes Store catalog, that track is automatically and immediately added to your iCloud store in 256Kbps, DRM-free iTunes Plus format. Even if you have a crappy 128Kbps mp3 rip, if iTunes Match can identify it, you'll immediately have access to the iTunes Plus version.

If there is no match for your obscure French electronica or Detroit garage punk songs, those will be uploaded as-is to your iCloud store. So in theory, you only have to upload a small portion of your collection of music.

If you don't renew the yearly $25 subscription, your iCloud store goes away. iTunes purchases will still be available to all devices, and anything that you have downloaded from iCloud to your devices you keep. This includes iTunes Plus versions you have chosen to replace older, lower quality rips in your main iTunes library. Apple explained that replacing those lower-quality rips is optional.

Fortune noted that this process presents somewhat of a "loophole" for dirty pirates to essentially pay $25 for "amnesty" of up to 25,000 tracks. We don't entirely agree, though. There doesn't appear to be a reliable way for Apple to know for certain if a particular song has been pirated—barring certain metadata that could be easily stripped out—so really the only benefit is that low-quality rips get replaced with high-quality rips.

A lot of readers asked if Apple shares any information about users' scanned libraries with third parties. Apple tells Ars "no," so the RIAA won't suddenly have a list of every song you ever downloaded or ripped. For the purposes of accounting, though, the company does share aggregate information about which tracks are being added to iCloud via iTunes Match. In other words, EMI will be able to know that 2 million users have Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" in their library, but not which particular users have it.

Another question our readers asked was what happens if your library is filled with higher quality rips, such as tracks encoded in Apple Lossless (ALAC) format. Matched tracks will still be in 256Kbps iTunes Plus format, while uploaded tracks will retain their original format. Tracks aren't replaced in either your iTunes library or on your devices unless you request them to be, so the lossless files in your main iTunes library will be safe. Sticklers might balk that matched tracks won't be available via iCloud in a higher-quality format, but if you don't require lossless quality on your mobile device, having access to smaller 256kbps AAC files via iCloud may be a benefit.

Our international readers wanted to know if iTunes Match will be available outside of the US. Unfortunately, for now, iTunes Match is limited to US iTunes Store users. While the service may eventually be available to users in other parts of the world, it will require inking agreements with record labels, music publishers, and other rightsholders for each separate country or region. Apple may be in the process of doing that now, but the company said there is nothing to announce regarding availability of iTunes Match outside the US at this time.

You mean iTunes won't instantly match all my Zeppelin bootlegs from the 70's? Was hoping for a better copy of the May 30th, 1977 concert at Capitol Center, Landover, Maryland as I was actually at that concert.

"While the service may eventually be available to users in other parts of the world, it will require inking agreements with record labels, music publishers, and other rightsholders for each separate country or region."

iTunes Match will let you mirror up to 25,000 tracks in your iCloud...

I wonder if there's an overall storage limit, or size limit per track. As in, will I be able to encrypt a 1TB backup of all my media, stick on the relevant AAC headers and rename as a .m4u file, and upload it to iTunes Match as a week-long song of weird noises?

I am no Apple fan, but the claim about them being able to know if your music is pirated is just silly. Unless you happen to have some pirated files that were watermarked by the labels and put out on sharing sites, there is no way to know this. One could have taken a CD, and ripped MP3 at whatever quality using any standard program (like Windows Media Player). Just because it isn't in AAC format because they didn't rip it in itunes, doesn't mean it was pirated.

Can tracks be re-downloaded at any time with no consequence on any device?

Is sync'ing done automatically for all devices? i.e., if I have Library A on a MBA authorized to Me and Library B on an iMac authorized to my wife, can I enable iTunes Match on Library A (my account) and immediately having content start sync'ing to my wife's account?

What happens in the above situation if there are conflicts? I assume this works as you say with higher quality tracks -- the highest-quality track is kept unless the user specifies otherwise?

Does sync'ing require Wifi or will 3g/4g suffice?

Is only music sync'd? What about playlists, album art, and other "extras" that are sometimes included with purchases (like album booklets or "deluxe" album extras)? What about music videos?

What's the storage limit on non-matched songs?

If I have a song that iTunes has, but iTunes doesn't match it properly, can I manually override the match? (Seems like the answer here has got to be no.)

I'm still wondering if this deserves the attention it seems to get in the media. Especially with free automatic wireless syncing from iTunes it seems to be $25 a year for not much at all for most people's needs.

But then, it surely fits with the lacking lock-in by iTunes. You can rip any music and have iTunes treat it the very same way as it treats music you bought from Apple. You can re-download the music you bought from Apple and with iTunes Match you can extend this to your other music. If you look at iCloud as Apple putting iTunes into the cloud this makes sense somehow, in a good way.

Thanks for the very informative story. I too had wondered what happens when you stop paying the $25/year.

I guess Apple's stance is -- if I have an illegal copy of a song, the $25/year doesn't somehow legitimize my copy -- it just gives me a better-sounding, still-technically-illegal copy of the song. Is that right? So when I stop paying $25/year, I keep any iTunes Plus tracks I've downloaded, I lose the ability to download more, but the legality (or not) of my downloads is beside the point.

Basically, they're not granting amnesty or in any way legitimizing illegal downloads -- they're just providing cloud-based storage for my songs (same as Amazon/Google, regardless of the legality of my music) and also saving me the trouble of uploading by re-using content from their store (but again, regardless of the legality of my music). That makes sense.

So, in theory, someone who has piarted a lot of songs can use this service to match their illegal songs with Itunes versions. Then they can sync all of those songs to their different (Apple) devices and delete all of the originals? How much is the Apple paying the record companies to allow this?

ALAC and FLAC use different encoding and decoding algorithms, but they are essentially the same thing, one is not superior to the other and both are free. Free utilities like dbpoweramp can cross-convert ALAC to FLAC and vice versa. The advantage ALAC has over FLAC is ALAC files will play on Apple devices, unlike FLAC.

iTunes Match will let you mirror up to 25,000 tracks in your iCloud...

I wonder if there's an overall storage limit, or size limit per track. As in, will I be able to encrypt a 1TB backup of all my media, stick on the relevant AAC headers and rename as a .m4u file, and upload it to iTunes Match as a week-long song of weird noises?

you have a free 5gb limit, which does not include apps and itunes bought tracks in that allotment.

so, one question is still unanswered- let's say I have some lossless files in my library now. These songs exist in the itunes store, so when I sign up for itunes match, they are matched and 256 AAC files are placed in my cloud storage. At that point, can I replace the matched songs in the cloud with the lossless files from my library or not?

ALAC and FLAC use different encoding and decoding algorithms, but they are essentially the same thing and one is not superior to the other. Free utilities like dbpoweramp can cross-convert ALAC to FLAC and vice versa. The advantage ALAC has over FLAC is FLAC files will not play on Apple devices.

good luck ending the lossless format vs. lossless format debates. the internet is really sticky on this one.

Is sync'ing done automatically for all devices? i.e., if I have Library A on a MBA authorized to Me and Library B on an iMac authorized to my wife, can I enable iTunes Match on Library A (my account) and immediately having content start sync'ing to my wife's account?

There're lots of open questions regarding people sharing accounts and people using more than one account, but I think we can be fairly fscking sure that it will not allow syncing music from one account to another.

You mean iTunes won't instantly match all my Zeppelin bootlegs from the 70's? Was hoping for a better copy of the May 30th, 1977 concert at Capitol Center, Landover, Maryland as I was actually at that concert.

Pfft...I'm dumping all this Apple crap and going with Google.

You don't even have to go that far. iTunes is missing a lot of studio albums.

How is this not exaclty like Napster? Apple's neat avoidance of the whole piracy issue is exactly the defense Napster tried to use in court (but they already have the song your honour, no way to prove it wasn't legally purchased! Innocent until proven, etc)

If apple can do this for $25/yr including all their hosting costs, the 'licensing fee' must have been teeny tiny?!

I like this whole idea. If I'm understanding it properly, I can jump into it with both feet, then if at some later point I become less than satisfied with the fee I can download everything and move elsewhere. It all seems unusually open-ended for an Apple service/product.

ALAC and FLAC use different encoding and decoding algorithms, but they are essentially the same thing and one is not superior to the other. Free utilities like dbpoweramp can cross-convert ALAC to FLAC and vice versa. The advantage ALAC has over FLAC is FLAC files will not play on Apple devices.

good luck ending the lossless format vs. lossless format debates. the internet is really sticky on this one.

Why debate? They're accomplish exactly the same thing; null tests prove it. If someone wants to argue that one format is superior because it results in a file that is a few KB smaller, go ahead. I'll stay out of it.

I want to know if I can create mp3s of white noise with song lengths and metadata matching an album, add it to my local library, and watch the full-quality version appear in my iCloud.

I'm guessing that their matching is based on "musicpattern" matching, and not metadata. (Check out shazam in the appstore, for a demo)

So you could probably fake it, but it will take some effort

If you can steadily predict which part it will analyze, just getting a small sample of the song will do.

It really is an interesting problem and one that might, if widespread circumvention is possible, kill the whole thing. Record companies will NOT be happy if you can just download a sample and get a full song.

Then again, if you can just download the whole song and "trade it in" for the Apple file... I suppose it might have already been considered.

so, one question is still unanswered- let's say I have some lossless files in my library now. These songs exist in the itunes store, so when I sign up for itunes match, they are matched and 256 AAC files are placed in my cloud storage. At that point, can I replace the matched songs in the cloud with the lossless files from my library or not?

File are not placed in your cloud storage if they are matched, you just get a pointer to the "master copy" of the song in iTunes. (This is why it doesn't count against your storage quota.) I'm guessing you can upload own lossless copy if you want, but that would count against your storage quota.

It seems you can upgrade all your purchased music today by visiting the Purchased option in iTunes 10.3 and then finding tracks that aren't in your library. Any older DRM-laden tracks can be replaced by the currently available tracks for free.

The only bug is that it doesn't seem to actually replace the tracks, but simply adds the non-DRM tracks to your library so you have to weed out duplicates yourself. Hopefully, something they will address as the beta moves forward.

So. How is Apple verifying the files to be replaced? Hash checks? surely the 128kbps vs 256kbps file will have different hashes. What if the file was ripped then modofied? I am sure they have thought of all of this but i am curious.

Example:

1. Copy any one of my Mp3s2. Change the meta data to be any song I want ( that I don't own ) and modify the file to have the same length3. Ask iTunes for the file to be replaced 4. ?????5.Profit ( $25 for 25,000 new songs I never owned )

I like the clever infographic. It's missing one demographic, though: those who will not pay Apple or anyone else to access music they already own.

It's also missing those who like smashing their heads against a wall.

You don't pay Apple for accessing the music you already own (if you own it you can obviously access it anyway), you pay Apple for storing it on their servers for you. And for offering versions with better quality to you. Do you expect them to do this for free?

Seems easy to understand why the music industry would go along with this. If a person downloaded illegal tracks years ago, they have no way to ever make any money from that. At least with this, they get some change.

so, one question is still unanswered- let's say I have some lossless files in my library now. These songs exist in the itunes store, so when I sign up for itunes match, they are matched and 256 AAC files are placed in my cloud storage. At that point, can I replace the matched songs in the cloud with the lossless files from my library or not?

File are not placed in your cloud storage if they are matched, you just get a pointer to the "master copy" of the song in iTunes. (This is why it doesn't count against your storage quota.) I'm guessing you can upload own lossless copy if you want, but that would count against your storage quota.

seems like Match is doing apple a favor with storage, at the cost of $25.not saying its a bad service, just another way to look at it.

Question: do you have your music on your laptop or is your music library linked to a large network drive or a separate hard drive or raid device? Not talking about back ups.

The higher bit rate songs takes up more hard drive space. Converting a large library of music to a higher bit rate uses substantially more space. A large enough library would force the music library off the existing storage medium.

Is this a method of forcing less tech savvy people to stay in the cloud if they cannot come up with their own solution to store music off their computers?

Shame it isn't available outside the US. I was more than willing to shell out my $25 USD for this.

Oh well, maybe in a year or two. In the meantime, a personal server will have to do

The article doesn't make it clear, but: it's not just iTunes match, NONE of the music related iCloud features are available outside of US and Canada. So even the download to multiple devices and all that is US/Canada only. Just so you know (source of this info is Apple's own iTunes page which states this).

But I'm sure that the friendly licensing corporation in your country (or mine, since I am not in US either) will (eventually) agree to allow this. It may be a year or five, but surely it must happen at some point? </sarcasm>

So I don't have to spend money on iTunes Plus upgrades on my music now, I just wait, pay $25, and get them all upgraded. Nice!

Is this true? I'm hopeful, and it seems like it should be, but I'm still not sure. I have ~$230 worth of iTunes Plus upgrades I haven't pulled the trigger on, and have been getting closer and closer to finally paying for them. If I can pay my $25 and just click my "iTunes DRMed" smart playlist (it looks for every track with "protected" in the "kind" field in iTunes), select all, then download the iTunes Cloud version to upgrade them... well, that'll save me a nice chunk of change.

The 5GB file limit is interesting to me. I'm not sure how much of my music won't match. I've got about ~7700-7800 tracks, and I believe I just recently passed the 50/50 non-iTMS/iTMS point (more than half are now from iTunes). Much (certainly most) of my non iTMS music is normal stuff from normal labels, and should get matched just fine (this should also be true of all the stuff I've downloaded from Amazon). Still, I do have a good bit of Creative Commons, random internet music files (video game remixes, fan remixes of music, etc.), and foreign language media that isn't on iTunes. I'm curious to see how close I'll get to the 5GB limit. (It's possible I'll get nowhere near it, and it's possible I'll exceed it greatly. I guess time will tell.)

I wonder if I could reasonably use even more parentheses. (I'll certainly try.)